MapQuest Travel Blogs for iPhone and iPad review

MapQuest Travel Blogs for iPhone and iPad is a great way to plot out your trip and then share it with your friends and family.

While Photo Stream and apps like Albumatic are easy ways to share photos with friends and family, they still leave something to be desired. If you go on a trip or vacation, you probably have things to say about your photos. Unless you leave a comment on your own photo, there's not much else you can do. That isn't the case with MapQuest Travel Blogs for iPhone and iPad.

Upon first launching MapQuest Travel Blogs, you'll be asked to create a login. You can either choose to use an email and register a new login or you can simply sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account. From here you'll be taken to your main Travel Blogs screen. This is where all your different blogs will be located. You can easily create new ones, edit or add to old ones, and more. Along the bottom you can also toggle between your blogs and viewing featured blogs from other Travel Blogs users.

To create a new blog, just tap on the New option. Once you've created it and specified times and locations, you can start adding content, in this case, what MapQuest refers to as chapters. Chapters can be almost any kind of content you'd like to add including a photo, story, activity, food, hotel, other, or transportation. Choosing an option like activity or food will bring up lists of places that you can actually tag. Or you can choose not to add an exact location.

After you're done creating your blog, you can sync it and share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or via email if you prefer to only give the friends you'd like access directly. Any blog you sync will immediately update across any device you've got MapQuest Travel Blogs installed on. That means any changes you make on your iPad will also show up on your iPhone.

The good

Much better customization options than services such as Photo Stream and Albumatic

The iPad version has a great interface that makes browsing blogs super enjoyable

Syncing works pretty seamlessly across all devices

The bad

You have to tag a location to start a blog. This may be a deal breaker for users that don't want to post their location

Sometimes setting a location is a little laggy

Received errors on saving photos or updating captions occasionally, which was a little annoying

The bottom line

The iPhone is a wonderful tool for capturing memories and the iPad is just as good for viewing and sharing them. Sadly, Apple's own native services like Photo Stream are somewhat lacking. If you're looking for an Apple solution, you can always pick up [iPhoto for iPhone and iPad]( which also allows you to create journals and events. If you either aren't impressed with Apple's offering or don't fancy the price tag, MapQuest Travel Blogs makes a nice alternative that gives you a little more control over your content as well.

If you're planning on taking a trip soon and you're okay with having to provide your location information when creating blogs, give Travel Blogs my MapQuest a try. If sharing your location is a deal breaker for you, options like Albumatic or iPhoto are probably still a better bet.